The Cage of Summer
by Pankee
Summary: Ten Years before the Millefiore had reared it's head into the world of the Mafia, there was a boy named Irie Shouichi, a completely normal boy. Watch Shou's summer become a living hell and then some, thanks to a boy named Spanner.


Summer had just ended, and the cicadas had stopped singing. I'm Irie Shouichi, an incoming second year student at my high school. It was the last day of summer, a lazy hot day. Today was the day when I was going to meet Spanner, an exchange student from Italy. Mother had just let him in. "This is Spanner, Shou, Shizuka, be nice to him." He had this face, this strangely attractive face. His skin looked so smooth and his hair was golden. My mother continued speaking, "Spanner, this is Shizuka, my oldest. She's in college. And this is Shouichi, also in second year like you." He smiled this half-lidded smile. I noticed that he took off his shoes before entering the house. He was the perfect gentleman. "You could learn a lot from him, Shou." I grumbled, entering the kitchen. The phone rang just as I did. It was Naoto, one of my best friends. "Hey, Shou-chan! You wanna come along to Namimori Middle's baseball game?" "Sure. Email me, I'll get back to you." "Awesome, see you then." I put the phone down, turning around to see Spanner looking at me. I just smiled at him and proceeded to go upstairs and change into my uniform. I was about to head out when Spanner passed by. "You're going to school already? I thought summer was ending next week." "Oh, yeah. I'm off to watch a game at Namimori Middle." "Sports?" He smiled, continuing; "Ever since I was a kid, my mom would always tell me: "You can't play sports! You might get hurt or something." Saying she's overprotective is kind of an understatement." I looked at him for a bit. He had a really nice smile. "You want to come with me?" His brown eyes suddenly lit up and the lollipop he had in his mouth almost fell out. "Really?" He was so cute. "Yeah, why not." I found myself and Spanner being crowded by the girls in our batch. "He's so cute!" "Shou-chan, who is he?" They repeatedly fired questions at me. Spanner seemed used to the attention. Maybe he was popular at home too. Someone yelled at me from the side. "Shou-chan! Root for our team!" Ayumi shouted, she was the girl I liked, a year older than I was. I smiled back at her only for Naoto to smack me across the backside. "What was that!?" "Dude, it's only morning and you two are already getting at it." "Ugh, whatever, dude." I tried to ignore him the rest of the game. I was cheering for Ayumi-chan, but there was something bothering me. Spanner looked kind of annoyed. I wonder if the girls had bombarded him with questions. We ended up being dragged to a party since Spanner was getting popular. It was already dark by the time we were heading home. "Hey, Spanner." "Yeah?" "Do you like staying at our place so far?" "Yeah, I love it." He smiled. I'd love to have a brother like him.

That was my first impression.

"Shou-chan!"

"What, mom?"

"Spanner left his wallet, could you give it to him? I think he's going to the library."

I took the wallet from her, since he had just left, he couldn't have gone far. I just turned left at the end of our street. That Sawada kid was being noisy again along with his friends. I swear, Spanner forgets his wallet everywhere. He's been around for two weeks. I caught up with him. "Spa-" I stopped, since he seemed to be going the opposite direction from the library. I hid behind one of the walls, to watch where he was going. It was this shady area. I looked at the sign on the side of the building. What the hell? A sleep-in bar? What could he be doing in this kind of place? I watched him slip into a door that said eclipse on the front. I could hear loud thuds from the inside. I pushed the door open. It was dark, and the music was loud. The lyrics were explicit. What the hell was this? I caught glimpse of him near the bartender. He was with a girl. She was on his lap. He was…kissing her. He opened his eyes and saw me, a geeky boy staring at him wide-eyed. And he kissed her again. He looked at me like he wanted me to see it. For some reason, I felt like my heart was ripped in two. I ran out, not caring who saw me crying anymore. I didn't care. I didn't care.

That's what I wanted to believe.

"Shou-chan, did you find him?"

"No."

I walked up the stairs as quickly as I could without stumbling. I heard footsteps near my door. That low voice. "Shou?" "Go away." I said, muffled by my pillow. He opened the door anyway. Bastard. "I heard you went out of your way just to give me my wallet." He smirked, closing the door behind him. "I told your mother that we just might've missed each other." He lit a cigarette. "You two-faced bastard, you deceived everyone!" He chuckled. "That's what all the girls say." "Don't lump me in with your girls!" He laughed, his throaty laugh. "Are you saying that you consider yourself a girl?" I wanted to slap him right at that moment. "Don't say that to me. I don't want your stench in the house." "Okay, next tiem I'll shower first." I glared at him and grabbed his collar. "Don't you dare do anything to my sister." He moved closer to me, his breath stinking of smoke. "Then you'll do." I felt myself tense, and grabbed the cigarette out of his mouth. "What the hell are you doing, Smoking?!" He laughed. Why the hell did he laugh?! "I like you, Shou. You're the first person to ever say something like that to me." He looked me in the eyes, his hands on my glasses. "I won't touch your sister, just cooperate with me." He took my glasses off, and kissed me. He kissed me. I pushed him away and slapped him. I slapped that smug little face of his. He looked at me. "I'm starting to like playing good boy. It gets me what I want."He moved over to the door opening it. "After all, I'll be here all school year." He was no angel, he wasn't even human. I smelled like a cigarette…That was my first kiss.

Spanner, I'LL HATE YOU FOREVER!

The days went on and I managed to ignore Spanner in that period of time. I knew he was planning something. I found him playing chess one morning with my dad. Spanner had become the god of our house. Everyone worshipped him. And if I told anyone the truth, that would make me look like a big liar. I'll just have to be a good boy and wait it out. Spanner will never let me do that though. "Auntie, I'm going out!" "Okay, Spanner!" Yeah, that's right, go out you bastard. Go get run over by a car. He put his hand on my chair. "Shou-chan said he was coming with me." …I did? I looked up at him, my look saying it all. "Right, Shou-chan?" "Uh, yeah." What was this angel planning now? I want to throw up just calling him an angel, even if I was being sarcastic! We were out for hours, and I paid for everything. The movie, lunch, EVERYTHING. You'd think he'd have enough money to at least split when he's treating out all those girls. "What kind of date was that? We ate lunch, saw a movie, and it's not even six o'clock yet." "Shut up, I paid for everything." Just then, there was a family that came by us. A girl, an older brother who yelled to the extreme, and their parents; Spanner looked at them with such disdain, I really couldn't tell why.

I thought he was going to cry.

"A vacation?"

"Yup! Your dad and I are going on a vacation. I won a raffle. I think you three can take care of yourselves, right?" "Of course." said Shizuka, using her "responsible" voice. My parents left the next day, so I was forced to cook since Shizuka would've poisoned us all. "Ow. Hot." Spanner said, he had a sensitive tounge. "Sorry, is it too hot?" He looked up at me, with an antagonizing look. "Are you really sorry?" "I said I was, didn't I?" "Kiss me and make it feel better." He moved in on me, and I couldn't pull away for some reason. Luckily, Shizuka walked in. He whispered in my ear. "Too bad." I could feel his hot breath on me. I shivered. Shizuka got her bag, she looked like she was going out. "I'm going to Okinawa for four days. Don't tell mom, okay?" She smiled her brightest smile and left us. Just like that. Don't go. Don't leave me here with this angelic demon! "Looks like it's just the two of us, huh?" the phone interrupted him. He went into the living room and I picked up the phone. "Irie residence." "Can I talk to Spanner? This is his mother." "Oh yeah, right away." I handed him the phone and went to clean up. I saw him next sitting on the windowsill, looking out the window. "What did your mom say?" "I need to go home early." "Oh." That was all I could say. I couldn't look him in the eye. What's wrong with me? "I uh, I need to go out to buy dinner." I knew he wasn't going to say anything so I just left, with a heavy heart.

"Shou-chan, Ayumi called. She said to meet her at the school field, she has something to tell you." "Uh, okay. I'll see you later, Spanner." I arrived at the school field fifteen minutes later. Ayumi-chan was there. She was smiling. "Shou-chan!" She said, she was looking cute but for some reason, I didn't drool all over her anymore. "Thanks for the letter! It made me happy." She looked up at me, her cheeks pink. "I really like you too." She tiptoed to kiss me but I stepped back. Why? Why am I like this now? "I…Sorry. I just wanted you to know how I felt." She ran off. What letter? What was she talking about? I heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes. It was Spanner. "Why didn't you kiss her?" he smirked. "You like her, don't you?" "You..You wrote that letter!" "I wanted to see how you'd react." I bit my lip. What does he want from me? "I don't even want to look at you anymore!" I ran, just like the first time. I was crying. It was dark. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't hear anything besides the sound of my heart breaking.

Spanner had spent a bit of the night at eclipse, the bar he frequented at. The girl he was usually with approached him. "Spanner~" her voice took on a singsong quality. "Don't touch me." He said, looking down at his drink. "C'mon, just one kiss?" she insisted. "I said don't touch me."

I sat alone in my room. He was back from god-knows-where. He opened the door and I glared at his silhouette. "Why don't you turn on the lights?" I shot a question back at him. "Where have you been?" He knelt in front of me. "I thought you didn't want to see my face. Besides, I thought you didn't care about who I slept with." I glared at him, I couldn't take it anymore. I hit his chest. "You jerk! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?!" before I could hit him again, he took my hand. "Worried? You sound like a jealous girlfriend." He kissed my hand. I didn't realize we were on the floor. "This is so humiliating!"

"Why do I love you so much, Spanner?!"

We didn't need any more words after that. He kissed me. I kissed him back. "You're the one who caught me, Shou. When I kissed you, kissing someone wasn't a joke anymore. Can you believe it? You're my first love." I looked up at him, shocked and relieved. "I'm not going to let you go." He undressed me,my hand in his the whole time. I never wanted to let his hand go.

The next morning, he was gone.

Two years have passed since then. I was taken in by the Millefiore. Ayumi-chan and I had both entered it, we became friends after that. Ayumi-chan walked up to me. "I heard you broke another girl's heart." "Eh?" "Naoto told me." I looked at her. She sighed. "Is it that guy who wrote the letter? You still can't forget about him? Oh, shoot. I have to run. Duty calls!" She ran off, smiling as she did. After Spanner left, his father called me to thank me for taking care of him. "Shou-chan, perfect timing." Byakuran called me over. "Could you deliver this to the Black Spell? They have a new recruit in their technology department." "Right away, Byakuran-san." I went to the west wing of the base, delivering the report to Uni. Someone caught me by the arm.

"You've grown, Shou-chan."

I turned around, blonde hair, brown eyes. That half-lidded smile. "I thought you'd forgotten about me." He looked me in the eyes. "I would never." He kissed me, full on the lips. "S-spanner, people are coming." "I don't care. It took me two years to get here, I don't care who sees us." He just didn't care.

Since that summer…

It felt like my heart was locked in a cage.

But then again…

He set it free.

Thanks, Evanescences Angel for that last line!


End file.
